Amid lockdown ‘Corona Warriors’ are helping needy across India through social media platforms
The nationwide lockdown has especially affected the working class, which feeds itself with daily wages. There are many groups on social media that are helping these people out
“If any of you are from Sant Nagar Burari, please note a labourer family is in need of help there. The family has a total of five members, including husband and wife and three children. Because of no work, they are facing a lot of trouble during this time. There is nothing left for them to eat or drink at home. Help them.”
A writeup is posted on Facebook with the name and mobile number of the affected labourer and the help reaches the worker’s house within an hour. Just like that, a person from Kasganj near Agra tells us on Facebook that his kidney transplant drugs are not available in Agra, including the nearby market and he desperately needs this medicine because it is an emergency medicine. People on social media assure him of providing his medicines within a day.
Social media has also waged a war against the coronavirus that has spread all over the world. Due to the lockdown, people are stranded in different parts of the country. This has especially affected the working class, which feeds itself with daily wages. The lockdown had caused the problem of food and drink and rationing for these people. While the shops around them are open, they have no money to buy rations.
The government is trying to provide ration to such weaker sections. At the same time, there are many people who are deprived of government schemes. These are migrant labourers who travel hundreds of kilometres away from their home village looking for livelihood. They do not have any papers for access to government schemes. These people are forced to live in hunger now. All the people on social media are helping out such people.
People are similarly demanding help on social media and they are also being provided with proper assistance by the competent people.
In fact, a group or post on social media, especially Facebook, is creating a chain to facilitate contact with a competent person in the city of the victim. This competent person can be a government official, an NGO or an individual. Through this chain, food and water and ration are being provided to the hungry and thirsty and poor people.
One such group active on Facebook is of ‘Corona Warriors’. About 4,500 people have joined the group just four days ago. The group is helping people from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu and Gujarat to Assam.
One labourer, Ash Mohammad spoke to Gaon Connection and told over the phone that about 200 labourers from Jharkhand were stranded in Ludhiana. They do not have any food or ration. Ash Mohammad sought help from the local administration. In addition, he also approached his local MLA from Jharkhand but did not get any help.
At that time, he approached a journalist who was associated with a group named Corona Warriors. On the post of the sufferings of Ash Mohammad and 200 other labourers on the group, the people acted immediately and provided them ration with the help of a local NGO. The same was done for about 300 labourers from Bihar stranded in Meerut.
Group coordinator Anupriya Naran Singh, who is happy with the support and responses on the group, said: “This is a pleasant surprise for me. This was the first experiment by me and my colleagues. I did not know that it would succeed. I simply thought looking at people in despair that the like-minded people, especially those who help, should come together. So, we built this group.” Anupriya is a civil services aspirant in Prayagraj.
With Anupriya, Anita Singh, Sandeep Singh and Arun Rajpurohit are the main ones who are developing the support of other 4,500 people in the group. Anupriya said: “Our job is nothing. We don’t even have to get out of the house. We just have to do the coordination, which we do from 10 am to 2 am.” She said that this gives her a lot of satisfaction before sleeping at night.
She told that the joining of many journalists in this campaign has also helped a lot as their contract is in almost every major city of the country. A Bihar journalist, on the condition of anonymity, said that even during chamki fever and Bihar floods, it was convenient to help in remote areas through social media. Even in this corona emergency, social media is coming across as a big help.
In addition, all non-governmental and voluntary institutions are also active on Twitter, which are helping the needy on a tweet or phone call. One such NGO is the ‘Aajivika Mission’, which is working for the stranded labourers in Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Amrita Sharma of the ‘Aajivika Bureau’ said Gaon Connection over the phone that not only they are providing assistance to the labourers but are also trying to share their plight with the world through Twitter. The Aajivika Mission has also rolled out a demand charter for workers from the central and state governments, which aims to provide economic and social relief to the workers during and after the epidemic.